40-foot monument rises in Baler

BALER, Aurora ,Philippines  – A 40-foot monument was unveiled here yesterday, symbolic of the town’s emergence from a once-sleepy municipality into a bustling and flourishing model for rural development.

The unveiling of the monument at the municipal plaza near the historic Baler Church was the main highlight of the town’s 402nd anniversary celebration coinciding with the 133rd birth anniversary of its favorite son, the late Commonwealth President Manuel Luis Quezon. It was also held in honor of the town’s patron saint, San Luis Obispo de Tolosa.

Sen. Edgardo Angara, along with Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara, Gov. Bellaflor Angara-Castillo and Mayor Arthur Angara, led the inauguration of the monument dubbed “Baler 400” marking the celebration of the town’s quadricentennial two years ago.

The monument was designed by internationally acclaimed artist Luis Lee Jr., who was behind the seven-meter monument “Open Doors” at the 65-hectare Holocaust Memorial Park in Rishon, LeZion, the fourth largest city of Israel.

“Open Doors” was inaugurated on June 21, 1999, 70 years after Quezon allotted in 1939 some 10,000 visas and safe haven for Jews fleeing the Nazis in Europe. Some 1,200 Jews made it to Manila for which Quezon and the Filipino nation were honored for their “open door policy.”